X Factor 2007, painful showoffs, blah blah blah

if you had any real talent, you wouldn't go on one of these shows in the first place.

that rhydian fella is um...interesting i 'spose.

pc user, i agree with you for the most part but for the fact that Leona Lewis had and still has a whole lot of real talent. i think she's fantastic.

Simon Cowell was interviewed on Jonathan Ross's chat show last year and he was asked what he would do if a young Marilyn Manson [who was also a guest that week] turned up to an X Factor audition. Cowell's answer was that Manson wouldn't even audition, because he's too talented. Which reveals quite a bit about Cowell's thinking on the kind of acts they do get. Leona Lewis is a bit of an exception, but XF isn't about finding the next Elvis or even the next Robbie Williams.

Cowell's answer was that Manson wouldn't even audition, because he's too talented. Which reveals quite a bit about Cowell's thinking on the kind of acts they do getcomplete fucking cluelessness.

Leona being an exception:

I got the impression that there was a big buzz last year in the line of"hey, there's someone actually good on here!" from some serious people.

Never underestimate the working class white teenage lad with moderate good looks, dark hair, a regional accent, no discernable personality and no remarkable qualities whatsoever. I should have learned this from Shane Ward/Liam BB8/Anthony BB6.

I know the obvious expanation is teenage girls, but I was a teenage girl a couple of years ago and I still don't get it.

Although, lol @ the digital spy forums

Louis Walsh to fuck off with the "Scotland needs to vote for Leon" "Wales needs to vote for Rhydian" leading Simon to plead for England to vote for brother and sister mentalists. ARE THESE PEOPLE INSANE? Yes, I'm going to vote for bland boring average dude just because he was born in the same country as me...oh wait, no I'm not BECAUSE HE'S SHITE.

Rhydian will sell bucketloads more albums anyway, and Same Difference will do children's telly forever.

Also, Kylie's outfit when duetting with Leon = several different kinds of EEWWWWWWWW.

leon is rub. rhydian's got a long, long career ahead of him. the best man did not win, but leon will be a cross between g gates and s brookstein.

jeez.

As Shayne Ward's biggest fan on ILX, I must protest; he is miles and miles better than Leon.

And I think while Leon winning is a travesty, hopefully Rhydian will be freed up to become a theatre star, which really seems like the right fit for him.

I just googled to see Kylie's EWWWWW outfit and unearthed this gem of a youtube comment:

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Anyone else noticed that Danni is the better looking sister? In fact I think she is one of the most beautiful women on the planet. And an arse like two wet plums in a brown paper bag.

this was the worst contest yet, surely. rhydian was terrible. leon -- rubbish more like.

Yeah, I'd picked Leon as the winner a while ago. Should have put some dosh on it really.

OK, controversy time:

THE JUDGES KNEW WHO WAS THE WINNER BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT!

1) After Rhyd's last song, all the judges were very "well, you've been world class thanks for entertaining us, you've been wonderful and if this is the last time we're seeing you, you're a star for sure" to Rhydian's face going "ah thanks you guys, it's been a pleasure, um, hang on what do you mean? umm, WTF!!!???"

2) Simon's final comment on his song basically went "Well, Leon... um ahem oops RHYDIAN!!"

Oh, and it only just struck me, Leona to Leon... Hmmm...

Having said all that, Rhydian's duet with Car Alarm woman was hid, whereas Leon's w/ Kylie was exactly right.

OK, go.

I'm with Mark on the "the judges knew" thing - Simon's "Freudian slip" was odd, and the marked difference of their final comments to Rhydian considering the rest of the time they'd been on about how he was surely going to win because he was brilliant.

I would never EVER tire of slapping Louis Walsh, btw. What a horrible little man, and so ungracious.

Did anyone else think Simon could have tried to be just a little bit genuine when sending off Same Difference? He kept on saying, "they're just really nice kids" and "they are what they are." I mean, it 's obvious he didn't really think it was a shame for them not to win, but couldn't he have at least said something nice that sounded like he actually worked with them over a period of months? i.e. "no one worked harder to be here tonight than these guys" (actually true, I think).

The word is that Rhydian voters had difficulty getting anything other than an engaged tone when they tried to ring in and vote for him.

In truth it was always going to be Leon - a harmless, unremarkable, malleable teenage white boy who isn't going to frighten the grannies, will do as he's told and be forgotten after one album of listless cover versions which will go in at number one and be out of the charts and into the charity shops within a month.

Yeah, but he still sounded better next to Louis who couldn't actually find anything nice to say about them "you do what you do and obviously some people like it the cloth-eared idiots" = he did exactly the same to the McDonald Brothers last year and they were his band who got further than his beloved Eton Road.

xpost to G00blar

Same Difference have a future in kids telly, I'm sure of it. I can't believe they didn't make more of them, tbh, tailoring themselves to the kiddie market is a surefire way of making money because I would have thought that was the age band that's more likely to actually spend money and own physical copies of CDs and associated merchandising.

What a shame that ITV doesn't make kids' telly any more so that Same Difference could go on it.

Well they didn't win, so presumably their only remaining contractual obligation is the X Factor tour next year? Same for Rhydian.

Sam and Mark (it's bad when you can't even come second to Michelle McManus) got jobs with the BBC.

it's bad when you can't even come second to Michelle McManus
Oh wait one of them did, I had them as 3rd and 4th in my head.

When's Michelle McManus's triumphant chart return as gaypop friendly disco diva, anyway?

Given that Steve Brookstein's been making some pretty good records under the pseudonym of "Burial," I guess anything's possible.

See, here's the thing:

When Will Young beat GGates, the judges had already placed their troth w/ Gareth. So, after having basically treated as Second by his new boss, it didn't take too long for him to not want Simon's control.

Since then, there's been paranoia on Simon's part about setting his stall against the winner.

Witness: When the lads group and the girls group were 1-2 in favour of the girls, Simon had a vote to go. If he had voted the lads, he could have potentially lost them when it came to the tiebreaker i.e. the phone-in votes. That's why he *had* to vote for "Hope".

Also, why all through the final show, he was the same vaguely supportive commentator all the way. And the lack of "OK judges, who do you think is tonights winner" type question *after* all the performances.

After all, why piss on your own meal ticket?

(thread enz)

I can't quite see what long term profits he's going to establish from a succession of well scrubbed, docile lads who'll sell for a month or two and then vanish, apart from the fact that he'll save lots of money from not having to hire songwriters since they'll all be forced to do cover versions. But then I don't think he really gets the point of music.

Save money? With cover versions he has to pay the publishers. With "new songs" he can *be* the publisher and take his cut.

But these acts aren't going to make long term profits full stop, so Cowell may as well just focus on being a "media celebrity" and not waste any time/money trying to be a recording mogul. Or just live off those Il Divo coinages.

Or, more likely, his Westlife residuals.

I'd guess record sales aren't the most important moneyspinner in Cowell's portfolio. And you only need 12 months of sales out of some guy if you're going to replace him next year.

Sorry, yeah, what Dom said. The illusion of being a recording mogul props up all the other bullshit tho.

I read his autobiography, (it was a cheap paperback), it was shockingly wrong in some places, to the extent where I thought "he's either winning by dumb lick, or he's giving nothing away"

e.g. one point where he says he'd have signed any songwriter that came to him and offered "Sorry seems to be the hardest word" and/or "Yesterday", without noticing that neither of those songs were exactly early in the respective songwriter's careers.

Having just heard the single, all I can think is that Leon IS Pat Kane. They've also given him Shayne Ward's set from 'That's My Goal'. And his moves. It's weird just how uncertain his voice sounds - it's a bit more characterful than Shayne, certainly, but by hell the kid sounds nervous.

Yeah, Pat Kane, good call!

Will he withdraw his LAYYBOURGH!!!

Probably not allowed under Cowell's 19th century workhouse contract.

Next year I want to see Malcolm McLaren on the judging panel.

Should I be embarrassed to say that I want to take Cheryl Cole and wrap her up in a soft tortilla and just eat her up?

I suppose I'm embarrassed enough to not start a new thread.

I NEED A PICTURE.

of me eating Cheryl Cole in a tortilla?

(me too)

ANYWAY, I'm hooked already, which is way earlier than usual for me. Do the judges seem nicer this year? I'm really liking the addition of CC who seems, against all odds, to be sweeter and more person-like than the other three, easily.

I really enjoyed tonight's episode. They obviously re-edited the entire thing after all the bad publicity this week, not just getting rid of all the sob stories but screwing up the usual order everything happens in every week.

Oh whoa! I didn't hear about the lying dude!

Cheryl's gotta be the favorite now that she made the unprecedented decision to pick the three best contenders out of her six (it helps that her three are probably the best three of the bunch--save perhaps that punchable dude with the triangle face and the biceps--Austin, is it?).

I'm going to jump in and say that I think either Ruth will win, or one of the two girl groups. Everyone else is either boring (all the girls, most of the boys), has the stench of failure (Steve Brookstein II), or is, as you say, punchable (Austin - pull it together man, it's all over the street)

all the girls

RONG

That said, I have zero track record in predicting these things. I think all three of the (younger) girls are actually awesome, which may not translate into will actually win.

I don't think any of them really really stand out. There's not a Leona Lewis there, or even a Chico. This year it's really about which mentor is going to beat their contenders into shape, and I think it's going to be Louis. But it's not going to be that boy band, 4LS or FLR or whatever they're called. Walsh has already got they crossing their legs in sync (it was right at the end of tonight's show). He can't think far beyond Boyzone/Westlife, but with the girls he doesn't have his usual tricks to fall back on.